Re: Thanks to NWCUE et all
Hi.
We’re back home in Minnesota, 13 days, 3784 miles, and a few hundred Tootsie
Rolls later.
Wow. The highlights are too numerous to mention. But I’m mentioning some
anyway because it was such a terrific experience for me and my daughter,
Kelsey.
*The Japanese. What graceful and creative riders they are! A pleasure to
watch them. Not only do they do the impossible with their spins, they do
the impossible flawlessly. Wow.
*The event itself. Putting together a convention of this size and
complexity is incredible. I am very grateful to the organizers and it was a
pleasure to meet them. My thanks to all, with a special thanks to Tom D.,
Barb K., Karen R., and Alan Tepper. Wow.
*Meeting so many people from the newsgroup. What a treat! People were so
friendly and kind! And, if you weren’t able to be there, here’s a couple of
things you might want to know: Bruce Edwards has a fantastic voice! Jacquie
Foss is a super lady. David Stone was terrific and taught Kelsey a bunch of
new tricks. Roger Davies was so much fun and very helpful, even fixing my
MUni during the closing dinner!
*Carrying a Twinkie in my bag for hours and searching for Sarah Miller
during opening ceremonies. It was so squished by the time I spotted the UK
crew that I dashed out to the car for a new one that didn’t look as if it
had been ironed. I was delighted to hand it over. Sarah bravely choked it
down, proclaiming it to be totally artificial. (Hey, it’s a Twinkie.)
*Playing games with various groups. We managed to play Donkey Tails, Paint
with Squirt Guns, Train Tag, Tandem Tag, Bungee Ball, High Bounce Blast
(with 50 high bounce balls and lunch bags), and Poker warm-up, and I wish we
could have played a lot more. Many people really got into Sumo, too.
Regrets: I missed Quidditch. Many people weren’t able to see the Unicon
Quidditch match, organized by Sarah Miller, because at the last minute it
ended up conflicting with the group performances. I just had to see the
Japanese group performance, so I missed the game. Dang! I was really
looking forward to that, as were many others, but sometimes scheduling just
doesn’t work out. But, I was glad Sarah was able to get the game going
anyway. At least a few people were able to enjoy it!
*Skills demonstrations and level testing. We passed people on at least 30
skill levels during Unicon. It is so much fun to see people progress
through the levels. A terrific sense of accomplishment when they pass. I
really enjoy testing people and explaining the rules. (By the way, I will
be mailing the cards and patches if you passed a skill level. There’s been
a little delay in getting them, but I’ll get them out as soon as I can.)
*The ongoing development of Open-X as a new and different category of
unicycling. Very cool.
*That ferry ride was soooo much fun! What a riot when a huge group of us
joined hands and rode off the ferry to Bainbridge Island. I loved it. And
the Seattle torchlight parade was one of the best parades I’ve been in. The
crowd was great!
*I had such a terrific time meeting and chatting with people from all over
– Germany, Australia, the UK, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Pennsylvania, Ohio,
California, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. What a great experience for me
and for Kelsey.
*I joined the brave souls who did MUni Lite on the last day. If it weren’t
for the help of Jason Beiler of Pennsylvania, I’d still be trying to make my
way down the mountain.
*I am grateful to everyone I coerced into signing my Bears on Wheels
autograph book. Good job! A very fun memento of the trip.
*The t-shirt swapping was so neat. We had a very informal swap meet. I hope
future conventions will have more of that. I wish I could have done more
trading, but we did end up with a couple of neat t-shirts.
*Everyone who helped with games or workshops or skills sessions, including
John Childs, John Foss, Sarah Miller, Greg Harper, Chris Vevers, Steve
Dressler, Dustin Kelm, and the group from Minnesota including Roger and Joan
Magnuson, Greg Muellerleile and Ginny Steinhagen, Gus Dingemans and Shirley
Erstad. Excellent help from so many people.
I could go on and on. Besides missing Quidditch, I do have a few more
regrets. I wish I could have met even more people and communicated more
with the people who didn’t speak English. I wish I could have helped out
more and organized more workshops (scheduling is really tough with so many
events to squeeze in). And, I wish I had traded more.
*But, finally, it is most important for everyone to realize that Gregory C.
Harper does indeed have charming knees. He is, in fact, a heck of a nice
guy and every bit as charming as his knees. Kelsey and I were delighted to
meet him and had such a great time sharing the root beer and the artichoke
pizza that he provided for us. What a highlight! That guy is SOOOOOO cool!
There’s talk of a Unicon in Japan in 2004 and possibly Puerto Rico in 2006.
Wherever it might be, I sure hope I can be there, and I hope you can be
there too. What a great sport!
Thanks.
Carol McLean (pronounced “Geez I Had Fun at Unicon”), Minnesota
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